Newbies or veterans, makes no difference really. What proves to be the greatest challenge is helping them move through the different ranges of emotions and phases through the school year. From anticipation, then full-fledged survival mode, to realization and disillusionment, our job as coaches is to help teachers come to a point of rejuvenation and allow them to reflect and anticipate how to meet similar challenges in the future.
As instructional coaches, we oftentimes want to go in and rescue teachers by giving them immediate fixes to barriers and dilemmas, but what we want to think about instead, is a way to provide them with a sounding board; a space that’s free of judgment. We must be guides, rather than givers, who empathize with them, helping to lead them to arrive at their own solutions.
To be truly effective as coaches, we need to suspend our desire to take action and instead, grow our ability to deeply listen and ask questions that elicit thinking.
Let me give you an example. I’m working with Michelle right now. She’s a seasoned, super bright, enthusiastic teacher who challenges both her students’ and fellow colleagues’ thinking. She’s not always a rule follower, but she’s eager to learn and try new techniques provided they’re sound and research based. She’s a planner and likes to add her own twist to existing practices.
She had recently tried out a questioning technique, one that I had modeled for her, with her 9th graders. When I asked her how it went, all she could say was “it fell flat”. I did, of course have to ask a few more probing questions to get an idea as to how she facilitated the process with her kiddos which revealed that her greatest ah-ha moment was that the students just didn’t know how to create questions. She had been the ‘interrogator’ all this time and they’d never had the opportunity to practice this skill themselves.
So, employing some empathy interview techniques, instead of telling her, “I have the perfect solution to_”,
I instead try…
“First, extend yourself some grace. This was your first try with the strategy. What were some of the initial challenges when you were explaining the process with your students?”
See what I did here? I begin with a statement of empathy. This not only shows I’m listening but also validates her feelings of disillusionment. I then follow that up with asking a question to hold that space for her, enabling her to reflect on it more deeply.
Let’s try a few more…
“I can see you have a lot of confidence in your students when you say it surprised you that they couldn’t quite ask those questions. What was happening in the class when you first had this realization? How did you initially respond?”
“Was there something I didn’t explain during the model that you feel would have been helpful for you to know before rolling this out with your students?”
“What advice would you give a new teacher who was about to implement this strategy for the first time?”
Although this does sound a bit psycho-babble-esque, the fact is, it works. It takes the responsibility for knowing everything off the shoulders of the coach, while empowering teachers to be masters of their craft and reflective practitioners. It takes us, as the “expert” teacher, out of the equation which can often prove to be intimidating, particularly to new or reluctant teachers. More importantly, it fosters collaboration between coach and mentee teacher, that oftentimes looks more like a caregiver relationship rather than that of respected colleagues who thought-partner together.
What we’re ultimately doing is building capacity in our teachers by teaching them to fish rather than giving them the fish.
Below are a few additional empathic questions you may want to incorporate into your future coaching practices (in no specific order):
- How would you describe one of your greatest strengths as a teacher?
- What have been the most profound challenges of the last few weeks?
- How have mentors been instrumental in supporting you to navigate those challenges?
- Where have you needed more or different support than a mentor was able to provide?
- What are you looking for in a mentor?
- Can you reflect on some of the challenges you encountered in your first weeks of teaching?
- How have teacher mentors helped you navigate those challenges?
- What does mentoring mean to you?
- What advice would you give someone who is going to mentor you or another early career teacher?
- What advice would you give someone who is trying to meet this goal?
- Given the time we have today, what is the most important thing for us to talk about?
- If you woke up tomorrow and a miracle happened so that your students were doing exactly what you would like them to do, what would be different? What would be the first signs that the miracle occurred?
- What pleased you?
- If this class were your dream class, what would be different?
So, what’s the takeaway?